


Things You Find When You're Alone

by extraspicyramen



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Family, Gen, Slow Build, Young Hux, Young Rey, hux finds rey on jakku and becomes her dad/older brother, what are tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-19 16:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5973964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extraspicyramen/pseuds/extraspicyramen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux, a rising 20-year-old captain of the First Order, has never liked children, not ever. But when he's found by a tiny scavenger orphan child on Jakku, he realizes that perhaps family is something they've got in common - or the lack of it. </p><p>(Basically - Hux becomes Rey's big brother. And that is all. Used to be "The Orphan and the General".)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mister Hux

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a rp. I played Hux, and my friend played young Rey. Check out her Child!Rey blog here:  
> ask-child-rey.tumblr.com

She stared at the strange man, all milky skin and pale eyes. He was swaddled in what appeared to be a heavy black uniform. Thick beads of sweat rolled down his left eyebrow.

“Mister, isn’t that outfit too hot?” She quipped, peering up at his angular face. He was rather tall, and she had to tilt her neck all the way back to see his eyes.

Hux resisted the urge to scoff at her. He didn’t care much for children, especially not little girls. They whined, and cried, and grabbed at his brand-new greatcoat. This one didn’t seem any different either; covered in a sheen of sticky sweat and grime. He held back a gag.

“No, girl. It’s fine.” He clipped back at her. She didn’t seem to notice his irritation, and instead of shying away, scrunched up her eyebrows and continued to stare at him.

“Mister, don’t you know you could get heatstroke?” Hux glanced down at the small, brunette nuisance. Her front two teeth were missing, and she’d slurred the “s” in “heatstroke” because of it. He rolled his pale eyes and scoffed down at her.

“I’m only here for a little while, anyhow.” He tipped his chin upwards, refusing to meet her gaze. If he pretended the conversation was done, she’d leave him alone. Or, at least that’s what Hux was hoping.

Rey was absolutely appalled. Did this man know anything? She was wearing nothing but thin scraps of tan robes, and she was still hot. She could only imagine how much he was sweating under that heavy winter coat. She began tugging at the bottom of the coat, which had great big pockets that she could stick her hands in. Hux scrunched up his nose in disgust and batted her fingers away.

“Stop that! What are you doing?” He narrowed his eyes at her, suddenly flush with annoyance. “Where are your parents?” He demanded, suddenly very irritated that the adults responsible for this bothersome child weren’t restraining her.

Rey’s small face fell. When she lifted her face to his, Hux thought to himself she looked like rain. The little girl opened her mouth to speak, and when the words came stumbling out, they were stiff as steel. “They’re...no. It’s just me,” she stuttered. Her teeth grit. She tried a smile, but it didn’t work, and Hux noticed. “But that’s okay,” she said.

Hux was alarmed. Alone? On a wasteland like Jakku?

_My stars, it’s a wonder she’s alive,_ he thought to himself. Dirty, grimy, and unfathomably irritating as she was, he couldn’t help but feel a shred of pity for the poor creature. He’d grown up with two parents, in the heart of Arkanis. And even then, he’d often felt lonesome.

He opened his mouth cautiously. “No? Well...alright, then.” His cheeks burned awkwardly, and he was dimly aware of his thin, long fingers tugging at his high black collar. Stars, it was hot. The child may have had a point. He shrugged off the thick wool garment and folded it neatly over his forearm, careful not to let any creases blemish the fabric. A beat of thick silence passed between them. “Say, what’s your name?” He glanced down at the little girl.

She looked up at him, and Hux distantly thought to himself that her eyes were filled with an empty sadness that no eight-year-old should have. “I’m Rey,” she began, and smiled at the man. He smirked. Rey, huh? That was ironic. A Rey of sunshine, on a planet with far too much sun. That was almost too good. “What’s yours, mister?”

And despite the sweltering heat of Jakku, Hux’s bones froze like ice. There was nothing wrong with what she’d asked. After all, he’d asked for her name first. But for some peculiar reason, Hux was unbelievably hesitant to surrender his own name. After what seemed like hours of thinking, he turned back down to the girl, patiently waiting for his response. He opened his mouth and sound came out of it before he could stop himself. “Hux.”

Rey’s nose scrunched. “Hox?”

Hux flushed and glared. “No, _Hux_. With a _u_.”

Rey peered at him curiously. “What do you mean by _u_?”

Hux felt a deep discomfort shake his innards, one that he'd only ever felt with food poisoning. His head suddenly felt severely light.

She...couldn’t read.

Memories of countless children's books splayed across Hux's childhood room surfaced themselves. They were unwelcome memories, and Hux growled to himself as he shoved them away roughly.

“Nevermind,” he spilled out. “It’s just Hux. Hu-cks.” Another pause of silence passed between the odd pair.

A disturbing thought suddenly dawned on him. “Say...how old are you, Rey?”

Rey’s face wrinkled in concentration. She was hesitant to respond, not because she didn’t know, but more because she wasn’t quite sure she could remember. She uncurled her little fist and began counting off little fingers. “Eight, I think,” she chirped. “Eight seems about right.” A peculiar twist of disgust unfurled in Hux’s stomach. Cold as he was, he knew when living conditions were inhumane, and an eight year old orphaned on Jakku certainly didn’t leave him with a pleasant taste in his mouth. Why would you leave your eight-year-old daughter on Jakku, unless you wanted them to…

Never mind. Hux didn’t want to think about that right now.

“Why do you want to know?” she asked curiously. “And, maybe do you want some water?” She looked at him with wide, innocent eyes, watching a bead of sweat slide down his neck, even with his heavy coat off. He hesitated, but _stars_ , did water sound good right about now. “Sure,” he said hesitantly. He watched her reach into a knapsack _much_ too big for her. She struggled to unscrew a small metal canteen before handing it to him. He nodded in thankfulness and peered down into the well of the container. Hux fought back a sour gag as he thought of how diseased and unsanitary the water must be, but he hesitantly lapped at the spout and passed it down to her anyway. Perhaps if he had known how precious water was on Jakku, he would not have drank it so thirstily.

“Thank you,” he murmured softly.

“So, mister.” Rey tried. “Why are you here?” He rolled her question around his brain. If he was honest with himself, Hux was debating on lying to the girl. After all, what did she deserve to know?

But before he could help himself, words came dripping from his lips, and there was no turning back. “Well, I’m a captain,” he told her, gesturing broadly to the few small patches of rank that adorned his uniform. He was about to tell her he was of the First Order, but before the sounds could make it from his lips, he suddenly came across the fact that he did _not_ want Rey to know his affiliations with the First Order.

“I’m here on Jakku temporarily. I was told to collect information about Jakku, since we’re in the process of cataloguing thousands of planets from every system.” Her eyes glazed over a bit, and Hux realized that perhaps an eight-year-old was not the best listening audience for the First Order’s protocol. “I’m waiting for them to pick me up again,” he said, lifting a gloved wrist to his face to read the time. “And, well. They’re about an hour late,” he confessed, finally.

Rey’s face crumpled. “That’s mean, Hux. And you’re a cap’n, too,” he almost laughed at that. Her bright eyes, her misplaced optimism, the pout on her lips. “Yes, Rey, I’m a captain, but that doesn’t mean anything right now. I’m practically the scum of all the captains.” This time he did laugh. Rey looked appalled. “You’re not scum,” she insisted, and he felt warmth pool in his chest. “Just you wait, one day,” she babbled, little cheeks burning pink with excitement. “One day they’re gonna treat you like the boss you are.” Hux nearly smiled.

"They'll be here soon, don't worry."

Around them, the sun was quickly descending, and an orange sunset burned across the sky. “It’s getting late, mister,” she told him, and looked at the setting sun sadly. “I should be going. But it was very nice to meet you.” Hux nodded at her, and offered a quiet “good-night, Rey.” She turned on her heels and made it a good few yards away from his stiff figure. But in the quiet of the desert, with no wind or noise to clot his ears, Hux swore on his life he heard Rey’s stomach growl.

His head snapped sideways to look at her disappearing figure. “Wait,” he called out, brows scrunching together. She turned her head back to him curiously. “When is the last time you ate, Rey?”

His heart fell as her little face scrunched up in concentration, as if the last time she ate was so distant a memory she had difficulty remembering. “Um... a few days ago?” she responded honestly. She said this as if it were a good thing, as if this were more often than she usually ate, and Hux felt his stomach twist as he closed the gap between them, suddenly kneeling till they saw eye-to-eye.

“ _A few days?!_ ” he practically shouted at her. Her face crumpled in fear, and her tiny body shied away. “Hux, stop it, mister,” she wailed, eyes wide and alarmed and slightly shining. But Hux was far too inexperienced with matters like this and continued his tirade.

“That is simply not acceptable. A few days is not acceptable.” Hux was worried, yes; but his tone of voice was certainly not a clear reflection of that. Rey turned to run, but Hux grabbed her by the wrist. _So small,_ he thought to himself. _She’s skin and bones._ he held her wrist for a long time, turning it over in his pale palms; tracing fault lines and tiny cracks where the unforgiving Jakku sands had torn her raw. She...was so young, he thought, as his eyes trailed up her arm and to her round face. He saw her trembling lips, her dripping eyes, her brows pressed together; and Hux realized at once with horror that she was terrified of him.

Hux dropped her wrist as if it were made of fire. His cheeks burned as he let her go. But Rey the scavenger girl did not run from him, for now Hux’s eyes were shut tight. He had been told by many a lover that his pale, stormcloud eyes were colder than ice. Most of them had left because of that, but Hux could not care less about those women now. Now, he kneeled in front of the little girl and talked to her with his frigid eyes shut, for the last thing he wanted was to scare her.

“Rey,” She’d stopped crying, and was looking at him curiously through tearstained eyelashes.

“Rey, please don’t be scared. I just want to let you know you need to eat. What are you having for dinner tonight?” He asked her, loosening the grip on her wrist. She sniffed, and looked back at him.

“Well, I was going to turn in these scraps for rations,” she said running a hand over her battered satchel. “But junk boss Plutt said they weren’t worth anything. So, nothing tonight,” she murmured carefully, afraid he might yell at her again. At last, Hux opened his eyes, but kept them lowered to her feet. He stood slowly, towering over her small figure. She flinched but did not shrink back as she did before.

“Rey, you are perfectly allowed to say no," he began. “But, if you do not have anything to eat tonight, I offer the option of waiting another hour or so. You are more than welcome to eat dinner aboard my ship. After you eat, I will drop you off at your...home.” he tripped over the last word uncomfortably, acutely aware that “home” was probably nothing more than a shack.

Rey’s stomach lurched towards Hux at the mention of the word “dinner”. Yet, she was cautious. A life on Jakku, abandoned at four, conditioned her well; Rey was quick to fight and slow to trust. This man, all tall, dark, and stormy-eyed was no different from every other slimy junk boss, she thought distantly.

But he did offer her food. And Rey could not remember the last time she’d eaten a proper dinner, one that wasn’t bare rations.

“O...kay,” she agreed carefully. Hux nodded at her, military-esque, and straightened his spine with his hands clasped behind his back.

“I will alert you which shuttle is mine,” he informed her, suddenly behaving much like the captain he said he was. She looked away from him, and sat in the sand next to where he stood.

“Okay,” she repeated. And as the sound of screaming engines neared them, Rey’s stomach rumbled again.


	2. A Hair out of Place

The inside of the ship was massive, somehow even more massive than the outside. Rey looked around herself in awe, wondering how any of it was even possible.

She’d seen so much happen in the past half-hour alone. When the captain and his guest finally came onboard the shuttle, a legion of Stormtroopers - his Stormtroopers - had been stationed at the ramp, waiting for the captain’s arrival. On Jakku it became quickly evident to Rey that Hux’s eyes were not his warmest feature, but now as he stood in front of his unit of trooper, a frigid gloss froze over his eyes that Rey wasn’t sure she’d ever seen before on a human being. His spine was a perfectly straight line, vertebrae stacked on vertebrae in columns. His chest puffed, filling out the edges of his dark grey uniform in such a way that made Rey forget it was ever wrinkled with sweat and heat in the first place. As he parted his thin lips, he barked out a command so sharp and unforgiving that Rey was tempted to clamp her hands over her ears. And as if they were possessed, the squadron of troopers saluted the captain - all at the same time. The noise of their raising forearms was deafening.

Now, Rey was standing in front of a small tile room with some strange porcelain objects she’d never seen before. Hux was at her side, waiting for a buzzing delivery droid to bring them new clothes for the girl. He walked into the little room and gestured to the glass stall standing upright in the corner. “Have you ever used one of these before, Rey?” 

Rey shook her head.

Hux felt his sallow cheeks darken. His narrow lips pursed together. He ran a tired hand through his already-mussed ginger hair, allowing a thin sigh escape his teeth. “This is a shower.” He gesticulated to the “shower” again. “You can push this button here -” He stabbed at a round gray knob fastened to the wall - “And water will come out of the showerhead.”

Rey’s eyes widened with amazement as water came rushing out of the little silver handle. It came out in luxurious streams and curtains, and it was all so deliciously...clear. Hux watched her with exhausted eyes as she raised the showerhead to her lips and lapped thirstily from its jets. 

“Rey, on shuttles, we don’t typically drink shower water” he said with flushed cheeks, trying his best not to embarrass the child. Rey quirked up an eyebrow - something so out of place on an eight year old - and stared curiously at the tall redhead man.

“Not for drinking?” Her brow furrowed. “Then what is it for?” 

Hux paused for a moment. “Bathing,” he replied. Rey’s jaw fell open.

“Bathing? All of it? Isn’t that a bit of a waste?” Her eyes widened, shocked by Hux’s extravagant suggestion. Rey hadn’t bathed in years. She hadn’t been able to. On a planet where water was scarce, such a commodity was a luxury. When she could bathe, she would immerse herself in dirty pools and animal troughs, and that was more than enough. But looking at the shower still spurting perfectly clear water in thick ribbons, Rey decided that life on a shuttle was utterly ridiculous.

It was Hux’s turn to raise his eyebrow. “Well, it’s not for drinking anyway. I see no waste in that, you’re using it for what it’s made for.” He lowered his eyebrow and stepped closer to the door, and made a mental note to give her drinking water later.

“I would...recommend you undress and bathe yourself in the shower. I assure you it will be satisfactory.” His cheeks burned as red as the shock of hair on his head. “You may leave your clothing on the floor, the cleaning droid will launder it for you.” And with that, he lifted his chin, clasped his hands behind his back (something Rey noticed he did quite often), and spun out of the room. He paused in the narrow doorframe, and glanced at her over his broad shoulder.

“Let the droid know if you need assistance.” The door quietly clicked shut behind him.

…

Hux’s walk to his own personal bathroom was quiet, save for the sound of his wooden heels clacking against the steel floor. He wondered distantly if Rey had ever showered before. Memories of her little tongue lapping thirstily at the showerhead surfaced.

He found his room, and with an unceremonious swoosh of the door, stepped inside. It wasn’t large, wasn’t spacious - but that was to be expected. He was nothing but a captain, only little more than any other lieutenant. He sighed and rubbed his neck as he removed his cap, smelling like sand and salt and sweat. He wrinkled his nose with the realization of quite how desperately he needed a shower.

He stabbed the button in the bathroom cubicle, watching the water roll down in streams. Hux was deliberate in taking off his clothes, as he was deliberate in all things. First the coat, which he folded in half and gently placed in the bottom of the hamper. Then his belt, which would be hung on the second-to-left hook in the wall. Then the shirt, then the trousers, and the underclothes, of which he’d put in the hamper in that exact order. Hux was not a man of great change, routine was the way he conducted and composed himself. It was clear to him that the way to rise in the ranks of the First Order was to be deliberate, to be careful, to be calculated. That way, there’s no room for a hair out of place, there’s no room for mistakes to happen, there’s no room for anything out-of-the-ordinary to occur. There’s no room for anything to go wrong, and Hux could see that plainly.

Hux’s mind flicked to the scavenger girl as he quickly washed his hair. He didn’t want to keep her waiting, he thought. That might leave room for a hair out of place.

...

Rey did as Hux had asked, absurd as it seemed to her. A little stormcloud of tan dust puffed up from the floor where she’d let her scrappy robes drop. 

Carefully, she stepped a toe into the floor of the shower, slowly inching her small body into the gushing deluge of water. She hissed as the cool stream made contact with her bare shoulder. The water trailed in lazy rivers down her arm, taking the dirt with it, landing in splotchy brown puddles on the tile floor. The water was cold and clear and smelled deliciously like nothing.

And when Rey was sure Hux’s footsteps were gone, she slipped into the glass cubicle, tilted her head towards the water streaming from the showerhead, and opened her mouth once again.

**Author's Note:**

> AAH! So this is my first fic, I hope you've liked it so far! I plan on updating at LEAST weekly, hopefully sooner. Please, please, PLEASE let me know what you guys think. I could use all the advice and feedback I can get!


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